NRL Supercoach 2026 Round 21 Wrap: 9 Things We Learnt

It’s certainly not going to be a sprint to the finish; more of a drag yourself there and see who else made it as banged up and bruised as you!

Round 21 is in the books; the scores look good but at what cost?! 

Some big names were felled by injury; other proven guns are looking more like Dollar Shop cap guns whilst Nicho and Cleary prop us all up!

Whoever has trades must be looking at using them all and being done with it. Like money burning a hole in your pocket, sometimes having too many options is a curse. 

Koula than Kaeo bounced back after trading in Simi and Walsh, finishing the weekend with 1409. No green arrows at the time of writing, but maybe enough to consolidate me in the top 38000.

I was a bit optimistic thinking Patrick Herbert (No idea how he came to be in my side) would score 4 quick tries for a lazy 150…

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1. Tim’s favourite Brother (from another mother)

Isn’t it nice to finally have a Williams who is Supercoach relevant! 

Sam barely was apart from his captaincy match against the Sharks, Tony had some glimpses but was way too inconsistent, David needed tries and George, well we know how that ended…

But it seems we finally have an out-and-out supercoach gun…A Williams from Cooma lighting up the supercoach world. You love to see it! 

Jack has been on an absolute tear of late, with season 2026 being his best yet. He hasn’t chalked up two tries since he played against Bega for the Cooma Stallions as a 17-year-old. But be it Bega or the Panthers, he just found a way to go up a gear.

123 on Thursday to back up last week’s 102 against the Roosters. He’s playing both middle and edge, and the Supercoach points are stacking up. If you’re towards the top, he is a safe option to buy; otherwise I’ll be locking him in for 2027. 

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2. Nicholas

Usually, I am up and about when Nicho goes ballistic, but putting the sword to Manly on Old Boys Day, he won’t be well received by many…

Scores were poking along okay until Nicho absolutely broke down the walls at Fozpark Fortress and left it in a bloody mess.

Not good for those on the hill. Great for owners, and by now, most of us are!

If Cleary hadn’t have scored so well on Thursday night, our scores would have looked a lot better with Nico as Captain. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in saying that he was my captain before the round kicked off, so it’s cost me about 70-odd points. So we’ll chalk that up to another week where the loop didn’t work.

But it’s still 185 points that have boosted our scores up on Sunday night. He had a hand in everything, scoring a try and setting up a few more, but he landed eight from eight with the boot, and he’s on some heater off the tee. 

If you have gotten to this point and still don’t own him, I don’t know how you’re going to go for the next 5 weeks. First of all, he’ll be priced at over a million dollars come lockout but rolls into Souths, Dragons, Raiders, Titans, then Eels. 

The NRL stats might want to put a couple of extra scorers on to keep up with him over the next month.

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3. Tiger hunting

Well, we could say a whole lot of things about the way the Tigers have crumbled in the last couple of months. 

But in the words of that kid on that Simpsons episode, “stop, stop, they’re already dead”

Their loss against the Raiders was the third time this year they have conceded over 50 points, and I don’t think it will be the last because things do not look much better for the next 8 weeks.

They play the Eels and Dragons in the next 2 weeks, then finish with a brutal run of Roosters, Cowboys and Panthers. 

And like a poacher in the Sumatran Rainforest, I think it’s time we start hunting the tigers. If you are in some head-to-head finals, or need a win, it wouldn’t be the dumbest play to pick a halfback or high-upside winger that might be playing the Tigers with the hope they do what Ethan Sanders did on Saturday.

A trade from TMM to Mitch Moses next week might be the wildest thing you’ve done this year, but it could pay off massively. 

Then we could look at someone like Val Holmes or Gutho when they play the Dragons. 

Head-To-Head comps aren’t won by being cautious. Bring Gutho in…

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4. Teddy Triple Play

All that conjecture during the week about who was the best fullback for the run home, and it just had to be Tedesco.

Whilst I and I’m sure a lot of others saw enough from Reece Walsh last week, although he tried, he just could not replicate last week’s effort or even look like starting a repeat of last year’s end to the season. 

Those who played with their head and not with their heart were the ones duly rewarded, with Tedesco scoring a hat-trick and finishing with 110 points against a Knights side. 

In one of the better games of footy over the weekend, Tedesco was the difference for the Tricolours because, without him, even with the injury dramas, I don’t think the Roosters would have overcome the Knights. 

And while owners might be sitting pretty with those points in the bag, a question must be asked though: is a hat-trick from Tedesco and 110 points good enough? 

Maybe I’m being a bit glass half empty, but if before the game you said Tedesco would score three tries, I would have thought he would be 135 at least. 

Is that a small flashing red light for owners? I don’t think so because at this time of year the best availability is availability and we know Teddy doesn’t miss any matches unless he has a headache, but after a 5-week run of not scoring more than 72, is there an attack-starved game where he drops back to scoring 50s? 

These words might come back to haunt me, but I think I’ll be happy to be a non-owner till the end of round 27. 

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5. Injuries

The NRL physio joined the long list of injuries on the weekend, with a thumb strain trying to keep up with the dramas that lay before him over the weekend!

Injuries galore and none bigger than Lucas and Grant which I will cover…

It’s still a long way to go, and if Round 21 was anything to go on with injuries, we may be asking a lot of our nuffs come the end of the season.

Dylan Brown will spend the rest of the year on the sidelines rehabbing an ACL. He has had a torrid run to start his Newcastle career, and another year or 2 like that and they might send him down the mines.

Daniel Tupou dislocated his shoulder, an injury that many 36-year-old wingers wouldn’t have experienced. 

This was all after the Rabbits dealt us and owners a triple blow with Murray, Duncan and Fifita all missing the next few weeks. Fifita via the judiciary, but still missing.

There will be some money sitting on some people’s benches over the next 7 weeks!

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6. Hooker

Set it on fire. Get rid of it. Add it in as a utility. Make it that you have to pick a coach. Choose a referee and whoever has the best captains challenge record gets the points. Any other ideas?

What has happened to the once great position? The one where Cameron Smith made it his own. Where Damian Cook was a set and forget for 80 points every week. 

I even remember the days when Mick Ennis and Robbie Farrah were of relevance! 

But we are staring down the barrel of 8 weeks of accepting a 30-odd in the position. 

Harry Grant went down with a hamstring injury, and if he’s back before around 27 I will be very surprised. He’s owned by 57% of all teams, and the last thing those teams want to do is use one of their remaining trades on bringing in a hooker 

Oliver Pascoe looks the most likely, but with his negative break-even and 74 points on the weekend, he will nearly be out of reach for a straight swap with Grant unless you’ve got some money in the bank 

Blayke Brailey is the other obvious option but has been poking along without doing anything extraordinary since his broken arm. 69 against the Eagles, which was his highest score since Round 9. 

Those Grant owners will be relying on their backup hooker, and if that is Brandon Smith, then you might be rethinking your strategy.

Smith went off with a cork on Friday night; he did come back on but then failed to finish. At this time of the year, if you have the right depth, an AE might be the way to play it 

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7. Second row Survivor

6 weeks ago it was all about getting the gun second rowers in, the ones with the high upside.

Now we are just hoping for three fit 2RF who can punch out a 70 at a stretch.

Another weekend, another crushing blow for 2RF owners. I feel for those out there who brought in Hudson Young last week, then traded him to Dylan Lucas this week. Lucas, in a horrible incident, dislocated his ankle and will spend time splitting the use of the Nick Moon boot with Hudson Young. 

Lucas was a much sought-after trade and was aiming to have a massive 6 weeks to push for World Cup selection. He reeled out of a tackle, and his ankle was pointing at Nobbies and his knee the sky. 

His injury opens up an edge spot for either Thomas Cant or the man of the moment, Francis Manuleleua, who was probably sitting on the bench for a lot of teams doing nothing and then rolls out with 111 points on Friday! Turned into Olakau’atu offloading and breaking the line at will. 

If you have a closer look at his stats, they don’t read too bad of a story for someone who was under 300k. In the four games he has played 74 minutes or above, he averages about 50. 

Not high on the shopping list this week, but if he was in your side beforehand, well done to you. You’ve now got an edge back rower who is guaranteed 80 minutes and who’s probably now parked on the left edge with Ponga due back shortly.

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8. “Dally M medallist Simi Sasagi”

Someone that should be high on your shopping list is Simi Sasagi! What a season this bloke is having!

I bet 2 weeks ago if you’d brought in Hudson Young or Dylan Lucas you wished you went straight to Simi and saved those trades! 

Or if you were like me, owning Hudson Young was a blessing because you could bring Simi straight in for the Tigers matchup 

Exploded after a quiet, yet solid 3 weeks since returning from injury. He had a three-point spread in his 3 weeks between his lowest and highest scores but broke the shackles on Saturday for a massive 110 points, and it was like the Simi of old. 

Dual position, Raiders firing and proven gun this year. If you have one trade left, it’s time for Simi…

Maybe I’m just on a high because I made the right call in what seems like weeks on a trade, but it is such an enjoyable own watching this guy play football at the moment.

A matchup against that fragile Panthers left edge awaits him next week. They were seen having a meeting after the match, and it could only have been to talk about trying to shut down Simi next week.

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9. Minute Watch

Eels v Panthers

Williams 80, Yeo 69, IPap 65

Knights v Roosters

Manuleleua 67, Cant 55, Lucas 25, Mooney 60, Whyte 56, Robson 80

Rabbitohs v Storm

Smith 46, Keaon 80, Aitken 80, Keeley 80, Clarke 80, Stefano 53, Grant 22

Raiders v Tigers

Simi 69, Taps 47, Hosking 56,May 53, Api 58, Twal 55

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Bulldogs v Warriors

Preston 80, Kiks 63, Clark 42, Egan 80, Barnett 52

Cowboys v Broncos

Luki 80, Lolo 47, Mahoney 7, Haas 65, Willison 80, Carrigan 80

Dragons v Titans

TCouchman 65, RCouchman 68, Stewart 80, Egan 80, Tino 59, Pascoe 67

Sea Eagles v Sharks 

Ola 80, Burbo 39, Laiafi 29, Paseka 59, Nikora 63, Brailey 80, AFB 34